Being based on and inspired by my brother, HOAX is a very personal project to me. It’s largely biographical, and as such I, myself, feature in the HOAX graphic novel Psychosis Blues.

Though artists will often portray themselves in their works (indeed memoirs are some of the most successful graphic novels), I’ve always made a conscious decision not to do so, even when a story has come from autobiographical beginnings. With HOAX it was different, because the story is not about me but about my brother and the difficulties he faced with schizophrenia that ultimately led to his death. And so focused was I on Rob and his life, that when I was writing the graphic novel scripts I didn’t really think too much about the fact that I was present in the memories too.

Recently we’ve started receiving second-stage roughs from some of the illustrators, including some pages from our international contributor Leonardo M. Giron. I was fully expecting Leonardo’s work to be incredible, and it is. However I wasn’t expecting the suckerpunch that came too, when I looked down onto such clear depictions of me and my brother during those difficult years.

I should have expected it – I’ve worked with Leonardo before and his readings of my scripts are so good they border on the supernatural. But it was still a very strange sensation.

Okay, so I’ve caved. I really don't want to spoil anything by showing artwork too early, or mislead you by images which are still only drafts; but I have to show you at least one of the drawings, just so you can see why I’m so excited!

This is a sketch in from Mark Stafford, and I find it just incredible. The way he's captured the story, and created the spaces on the page. Just incredible. The man in a unsung – hereby sung! – genius.

I’m not the only one who’s been busy of late. The ten illustrators involved in the HOAX graphic novel have been hard at it too, each bringing their personal style and energy to the project in response to the individual scripts that were written for them.

We’ve now had all the first-stage roughs in and, wow, have these guys delivered! Even at this early stage there is beauty, harrowment and genius in spades. And despite each illustrator working independently to an individual brief, there must be some kind of project telepathy going on because there’s a real sense of coherence coming through.

I’m torn between wanting to show you everything, and knowing I really shouldn’t.

But I shall be a good Ravi. Not even a sneak peek. Not yet... not yet… not yet….

Something else for us to think about is the imagery and 'branding' that we attach to project. This has started now with the HOAX butterfly. Butterflies are a global symbol for souls of the dead and transformation. They are a key symbol in the HOAX story, and a very powerful image.

It’s not long now till dashing academic Prof Matt and I give our talk at the 4th International Comics and Medicine Conference, to be held this July in Brighton.

I'm really looking forward to this conference! With talks from ‘medicine people’ and ‘comics people’, both exploring how the medium of comics can actively benefit medical understanding, it seems to me a very exciting forefront of exploration.

Matt and I are still working out the finer points of our presentation (namely who will play Paul Daniels and who will play Debbie McGee)... however it’s not all me, Matt, saws and sequins. Another aspect to the conference is the comics-art print exhibition, curated by physician and art critic Dr John Quin and made up of pieces by the actual comics people attending.

The exhibition will reflect the themes of the conference, and being able to associate the pieces to the real-life people giving the talks will only add to the interest and understanding.

Of course I’m one of those naughty imposters in the comics world who writes but doesn’t draw, so I don’t have artwork of my own to exhibit. I do, however, have artwork that was my poet-brother Rob’s. And as we’ll be talking about the Rob-inspired project HOAX, which sits very firmly within Graphic Medicine, it seems only fitting.

Rob was as mighty with the pencil as he was the pen. The print I’ve chose for the exhibition was part of his own exploration into the dark layers we can so easily succumb to….

The end of the conference will see the prints auctioned, with all profits raised going to charity.

This month saw the reuniting of core HOAX team Benji Reid, Ben McGarvey, Pippa Frith, Prof Matt Green and myself, as we all got together in the beautiful ‘open space’ of Manchester’s Royal Exchange to talk Stage 2.

Stage 1 of the project involved finding the right people (the core team plus the illustrators, R&D performers and the various technical assists), communicating the HOAX vision to them all, and seeing what that vision inspired.

Anyone who’s been following this project will know that the vision has inspired plenty! The ideas being developed for both the musical and graphic novel alike are just amazing. Everybody involved is pouring masses of thought and energy into their contributions, and the calibre of their talents shines through.

Stage 2, now, is about bringing all of these ideas to completion and production. We’ll be applying for the second round of funding, talking to various theatres, publishers, printers and such to effect all the necessary partnerships, and generally moving up a gear in terms of cohering all the separate elements into one ambitious piece of storytelling.

It’s hard to say which aspects are the most head-spinning, rewarding, fraught, compelling…. Really it’s just all so exciting!

I just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their kind messages yesterday. Hard to believe that it's five years now since my brother killed himself after battling with schizophrenia for most of his adult life.

He was only 31 years old.

I wanted, too, to thank everyone who is involved with creating, backing, and simply believing in HOAX.

HOAX is a project born out of my brother's life and writings and, I hope, will be both legacy and tribute to make him proud.

Yesterday, when I went to visit the woodland memorial park where Rob is buried, I felt such strength and peace rising up from the earth. HOAX is a raw and turbulent work in many ways, but the actual creation of it has been imbued with that same strength and peace from the start.